I love that screenshot of the red Folker triplane on Moby from the Trelane episode.
I'll have to hunt down a copy now.

Sun Jun 14, 2009 10:42 pm

LooZee

Joined: 11 Jun 2009
Posts: 4
Location: Germany

Re: Interplay's Star Trek

Sorry for bringing up this thread again after such a long time

I found some time this week to put together some specifications of Star Trek's file formats, so I can share them with others. XentaxWiki had some information that needed additions, but I think I'm going to create an own website for the project soon.

It would already be possible to take the graphics, sounds and texts and rebuild the episodes in some adventure game creator or custom engine, but I realized that's not what I (as a dev) want. I want to understand how the game works and what Edelstein & Patel were smoking Implementing this into ScummVM would be a simple task then.

There is a lot of hardcoded stuff in Star Trek that has to be ported, which is just a time problem, not something I can't do. I first disassembled Judgment Rites 6 years ago, unbelievable. Btw, DataRescue's IDA 5 fails to load the old project, so Star Trek is still disassembled and commented in IDA 4.

I'll keep you updated. If someone's interested to help, I would be glad to share my efforts.

Sat Mar 13, 2010 6:14 pm

clone2727Retired

Joined: 09 Jun 2006
Posts: 1592
Location: NJ, USA

Re: Interplay's Star Trek

quote:Originally posted by LooZeeSorry for bringing up this thread again after such a long time

I found some time this week to put together some specifications of Star Trek's file formats, so I can share them with others. XentaxWiki had some information that needed additions, but I think I'm going to create an own website for the project soon.

It would already be possible to take the graphics, sounds and texts and rebuild the episodes in some adventure game creator or custom engine, but I realized that's not what I (as a dev) want. I want to understand how the game works and what Edelstein & Patel were smoking Implementing this into ScummVM would be a simple task then.

There is a lot of hardcoded stuff in Star Trek that has to be ported, which is just a time problem, not something I can't do. I first disassembled Judgment Rites 6 years ago, unbelievable. Btw, DataRescue's IDA 5 fails to load the old project, so Star Trek is still disassembled and commented in IDA 4.

I'll keep you updated. If someone's interested to help, I would be glad to share my efforts.

I already began working on a very basic engine for Star Trek 25th and Judgment Rites, but stopped beyond basic graphics and MIDI support. Let me know if you want access to it. Hopefully, we could work on one project instead of multiple.

Sat Mar 13, 2010 6:58 pm

LooZee

Joined: 11 Jun 2009
Posts: 4
Location: Germany

Re: Interplay's Star Trek

quote:Originally posted by clone2727I already began working on a very basic engine for Star Trek 25th and Judgment Rites, but stopped beyond basic graphics and MIDI support. Let me know if you want access to it. Hopefully, we could work on one project instead of multiple.

I found out about your project yesterday, downloaded the sources and looked if I can find something new in there. The font file format... it's so simple! I always thought it would be one big bitmap for all chars. And I took your LZSS code and adapted it to my codebase. I was using the "original" function ported from Judgment Rites, not even knowing it's LZSS, which works very well and uses less memory. It still has to be decided which version is "better".

Graphics, animations (and animation scripts), menus and several other things are 99% explored, sound files are standard anyway (VOC and MIDI). I have written code that correctly plays the intro of Judgment Rites and shows the bridge with looping animations of the crew. This is where the game would start... Now it's all about the game logic. Where and how does an episode start? Which files are loaded? What do those RDF files hide from me?

The very last thing I'm going to think about is the pseudo 3D engine they're using in space combat... the nice thing about Judgment Rites is that those arcade sequences can be skipped

Although I have already put a lot of work into this, there is not much to add to the scummvm-startrek project. Of course, you could implement my old demo as a teaser, but believe me - after watching the intro 1000 times, you don't want to see the rest of the game anymore

Well, I'm here, I'm working on it, and although the code is not yet "open", I'm open to team work in this matter.

Sat Mar 13, 2010 7:59 pm

clone2727Retired

Joined: 09 Jun 2006
Posts: 1592
Location: NJ, USA

Re: Interplay's Star Trek

quote:Originally posted by LooZeeI found out about your project yesterday, downloaded the sources and looked if I can find something new in there. The font file format... it's so simple! I always thought it would be one big bitmap for all chars. And I took your LZSS code and adapted it to my codebase. I was using the "original" function ported from Judgment Rites, not even knowing it's LZSS, which works very well and uses less memory. It still has to be decided which version is "better".

The one problem with the font format is that it is only present in the DOS versions of the games (not Amiga or Mac).

The LZSS code is loosely based on the Groovie version. One day, I hope to base it on the faster and more-memory efficient Mohawk version.

quote:Originally posted by LooZeeGraphics, animations (and animation scripts), menus and several other things are 99% explored, sound files are standard anyway (VOC and MIDI). I have written code that correctly plays the intro of Judgment Rites and shows the bridge with looping animations of the crew. This is where the game would start... Now it's all about the game logic. Where and how does an episode start? Which files are loaded? What do those RDF files hide from me?

I don't know.

quote:Originally posted by LooZeeThe very last thing I'm going to think about is the pseudo 3D engine they're using in space combat... the nice thing about Judgment Rites is that those arcade sequences can be skipped

Yeah, the 3D would probably be the last thing implemented.

quote:Originally posted by LooZeeAlthough I have already put a lot of work into this, there is not much to add to the scummvm-startrek project. Of course, you could implement my old demo as a teaser, but believe me - after watching the intro 1000 times, you don't want to see the rest of the game anymore

Well, I'm here, I'm working on it, and although the code is not yet "open", I'm open to team work in this matter.

Not exactly sure what you want to do here. Is there anything your codebase has that the public one doesn't? If so, could we merge that into the public one? Do you want access rights to the code?

Sat Mar 13, 2010 8:37 pm

LooZee

Joined: 11 Jun 2009
Posts: 4
Location: Germany

Re: Interplay's Star Trek

quote:Originally posted by clone2727The one problem with the font format is that it is only present in the DOS versions of the games (not Amiga or Mac).

Hardcoding 128 characters shouldn't be a problem. But I guess there are much more differences.

quote:Originally posted by clone2727Not exactly sure what you want to do here. Is there anything your codebase has that the public one doesn't? If so, could we merge that into the public one? Do you want access rights to the code?

You're probably right. I'm talking too much.

I'm not a ScummVM developer. I came here because this is the place where people are interested in porting old adventure games. And where people have experience with that. I'll be glad to help with the ScummVM implementation once it's in an implementable state. Until then, myself could use some help.

Sat Mar 13, 2010 9:29 pm

clone2727Retired

Joined: 09 Jun 2006
Posts: 1592
Location: NJ, USA

Re: Interplay's Star Trek

quote:Originally posted by LooZeeHardcoding 128 characters shouldn't be a problem. But I guess there are much more differences.

Not really, each one uses a different font format.

quote:Originally posted by LooZeeI'm not a ScummVM developer. I came here because this is the place where people are interested in porting old adventure games. And where people have experience with that. I'll be glad to help with the ScummVM implementation once it's in an implementable state. Until then, myself could use some help.

I don't really understand your logic here. Why wouldn't you want to work on a version in ScummVM? Not being a ScummVM developer doesn't mean anything, anyone can work on an engine for ScummVM and then ask for inclusion into the main project.

Sat Mar 13, 2010 10:35 pm

SeeDub

Joined: 30 Dec 2010
Posts: 1

Sorry about digging up an old thread. To begin I am not a programmer, but a radio guy. I began a project some time ago of collecting the audio from 25th anniversary, and creating a audio program with it. the files were a simple .voc that i can open with Audition. Judgement Rites appear to compress the audio into .vcc files. using watto's Game Extractor I could open the .vcc, but not use any file. The question being is there a better tool to extract the audio, and possibly convert it to .wav (for editing simplicity)?
thank you for any help.

PS I think these games would be great skinned in something like KOTOR engine.

Tue Jun 19, 2012 10:16 pm

jyhash

Joined: 03 Sep 2006
Posts: 2
Location: Eugene, OR

.VCC files?

I'm in the same boat as SeeDub (just 3 years later). I'm trying to decompile the .VCC files, but running into roadblocks. I can view the files, but I don't know what they need to be renamed to or opened in to be viable file formats. Can either clone2727 or the OP tell me how to extract and convert those to .VOC? Appreciated.

Apologies for the thread necromancy,

JYH

Fri May 03, 2013 9:13 am

JeremyLC

Joined: 17 Jul 2014
Posts: 2

Re: .VCC files?

quote:Originally posted by jyhashI'm in the same boat as SeeDub (just 3 years later). I'm trying to decompile the .VCC files, but running into roadblocks. I can view the files, but I don't know what they need to be renamed to or opened in to be viable file formats. Can either clone2727 or the OP tell me how to extract and convert those to .VOC? Appreciated.

Note, however, that some of the files in the VCC files are just ordinary Creative VOC files.

Mon Jul 21, 2014 1:53 pm

JeremyLC

Joined: 17 Jul 2014
Posts: 2

A little more on the ACMP/VC file stuff. If you have the ST:JR CD you'll find on it a DOS program called makevcc.exe that will pack/compress a VOC file (or set of them) and produce a VCC file. If you're better with audio compression than I am (a very low bar to reach ) you could pack a known file and compare the output of makevcc for clues.

Mon Jul 21, 2014 2:01 pm

andwan0

Joined: 31 Oct 2009
Posts: 39

Keep going guys. Keep up the good work!

Am sure there's a huge demand for Star Trek adventure games on ScummVM

Wed May 27, 2015 3:17 pm

count23

Joined: 22 Oct 2017
Posts: 1

Apologies for reviving a necropost again. But i have some questions.

i've been working on the 25th anniversary and JR libraries for potentially use in Scumm (Or Unity with a newer engine) and i was wondering if anyone had any luck identifying the .r3s/.r3d and .shp file formats?

I believe they're related to the spaceship models, .shp are DOS shape files, but they dont contain anymore than blank panes or basic spheres. I think that the r3s content are photographic or image types but it's hard to reverse engineer without knowing where they came from.

Does anyone have any idea what they could be? are they raster 3D sprites or something of that nature? Does anyone know which program?

Additionally, regarding the music, i noticed that the SCUMM VM repo has a reference to audio playing, but it does not appear to includ the MIDI componant, i've found the instrument patches for MT32 and AD (the .mt and .ad files) as well as .adv driver files. are the music elements part of any of these files or are they still somewhere in the archive where i haven't found them?